Catch up

We’ve been harvesting our yummy new potatoes and asparagus since the last week of April. We cautiously dug up the first of the potatoes (Annabelle, of course), more in anticipation than with any conviction on 26th April, hoping for something special to serve with the free range chicken we were having for Sunday lunch. To my amazement, they were ready and boy were they delicious. I picked the first asparagus earlier that week and we’ve been gorging on them ever since, the only downside to this delicacy is that it tends to make your urine smell, well worth it in my opinion.

The decking hasn’t looked this well since it was first installed, all due to Jays Fluid, Ronseal Decking Oil and bucketsful of elbow grease. Just as well because we’ve been spending a lot of time on it since lockdown.

I’ve had mixed results with seeds. Of the 8 tomato seeds (Y Ddraig Goch) sowed, only 3 were successful whilst nearly all of the Crimson Crush seeds germinated. Disappointingly none of the sweetcorn seed (Wagtail) germinated, only 5 of the runner beans and the jury is still out on the carrots; I have contacted the company but as yet they have not responded. Everything else seems to be flourishing.

This week I’ve cut the box hedge and for the first time ever it is level (that is as level as I can get it by eye), it did mean cutting one half down by 6 inches, a painful decision that took me 2 days to make. I have yet to tackle the yew hedge!

Dry weather has meant a daily routine of watering and though the water butts are a godsend, I am ashamed to admit that I use sprinklers at least once a week to soak the vegetable patch.

I obviously haven’t been sufficiently vigilant and oh the shock to find that at least 5 of the rose bushes were showing signs of rolling sawfly infestation, ie some of the leaves had curled downwards. I was spurred into action, immediately removed the offending leaves and dispatched them into the hotbin. I recently participated in a virtual reality gardening club and learned of the many uses of Neem oil. I made up a solution of 5 ml organic Neem oil, 10 ml washing up liquid to 1 litre of water and treated all the roses with it, even the healthy ones, weekly spraying should discourage the sawfly from laying its eggs on my roses!!! So far, so good.

I’ve been very lax, (no doubt, lured into a false sense of security by the dry weather) -the early morning snail hunt is no longer a daily occurrence. So should I really be surprised that the slugs are dining out on my Hostas again? From now on they’ll have nematode wine to go with their meal, that will stop them in their tracks. Meanwhile, it’s back to the dawn vigil.